I’m not ashamed to say this – I hopped happily on the comic book bandwagon after seeing Wonder Woman, and was thrilled to see that DC was doing a rebirth series for Wonder Woman written by Greg Rucka. I bought the first two volumes as soon as I heard about it, and was honored to be given access to the third and fourth volumes on Edelweiss, and now I’m here FINALLY writing this review. Finally finally finally.
Because these volumes encompass so much in the universe, I’m going to be pretty brief with my breakdowns on the plots.
Volume 1: The Lies
Wonder Woman realizes that she can no longer return to Themyscura, even though she had thought she had been going back for years. Many of her memories are lies. She’s sad, broken, beaten down.
Volume 2: Year One
We are taken back to Wonder Woman’s origin story in this rebirth universe, including her first meeting with Steve Trevor (!!). This helps her understand that not everything is a lie, that some things are still real.
Volume 3: The Truth
Wonder Woman finds her truth, realizes and makes peace with the fact that she can’t return to Themyscura, and goes home to the house that Steve built for her.
Volume 4: Godwatch
We were introduced to Godwatch as an entity in Volume 3, but this volume is a lot more about them and their nefarious plans rather than on Wonder Woman. They’re trying to take her memories, her knowledge, her truths and use them to find the daughter of a scientist whose face was taken by twin gods. She was taken to Themyscura, which is why they’ve been trying to force Diana to find her way back from the beginning of the Rebrith series.
3 Things I Loved
- The artwork. The artwork in these volumes is so wonderful. It perfectly captures what I want to see in Wonder Woman and in the supporting characters. I loved everything about the full colors and the way everything was drawn.
- Steve and Diana’s relationship. Okay. I loved Steve in the Wonder Woman movie, but he really stole my heart in these comics. He loves Diana so purely, so selflessly. He’d do anything to help her and protect her, and she’d do the same, and seeing them have at least one night alone in the house he built for her… oh, my heart.
- Etta Candy. Again, I loved Etta Candy in the movie, but she’s a full-fledged badass in these comics. She’s a high ranking officer in the Army and she runs the show and I LOVE IT. *heart eyes*
Dislikes/Problematic Content
In terms of problematic content, I don’t recall any. The cast was diverse and the universe was updated, which I appreciated. I even got vibes that Diana could be bi, but that’s not canon or anything. Just reader vibes from me (and maybe wishful thinking). So yeah, two thumbs up in this department.
If we’re talking about dislikes… Godwatch as an entire volume was tough for me. We got a lot of the “bad guys'” perspective, which was illuminating, but it didn’t hold my interest like the first three volumes did. Maybe if we had had more of that sprinkled into the earlier volumes rather than waiting for the fourth volume and getting most of it there, I would feel differently. Who knows. But I definitely liked volumes 1-3 better than volume 4, in terms of story and content.
Rating(s)
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
This might get a little confusing, so I’m going to try to make this as clear as possible. During the first volume, I was a little confused, then really caught on and started loving the second volume, then loved the third volume, then fell off again in the fourth. So I’m going to rate each one and then give an average! Volume 1: The Lies gets a GREEN rating; Volume 2: Year One gets a BLUE rating; Volume 3: The Truth gets a BLUE rating; and Volume 4: Godwatch gets a YELLOW rating. So! As a whole, the Wonder Woman Rebirth series (through volume 4) gets a GREEN rating from me! I’ve definitely been enjoying them. ❤
Thank you to the publisher and to Edelweiss for advanced copies of Volume 3: The Truth and Volume 4: Godwatch in exchange for honest reviews.
Have any of you been reading the rebirth series? What do you think?
Happy reading!
-A.
Snark & Squee 